All posts tagged ‘puzzles and brain’

I’m not talking about a new device or game, I’m talking puzzles. Compelling, artful, mind-stretching puzzles.

Yes, really.

During the winter months my grandparents kept a puzzle going on a table near their front window. It had hundreds of tiny pieces, far too many for a small child’s ability, but I noticed the quiet pull it exerted on people. My older sister would wander past and pause to tease one into place. My father would linger a few minutes in peaceful reverie with his father-in-law as he worked on it. My mother and her mother would sit there with coffee after dinner. When I stood nearby I got advice that’s helped me solve problems far more vexing than a jigsaw, like “Find the edges first,” and “Sometimes you need to step back to see the whole picture,” and “Don’t try to force a piece if it doesn’t fit right away.”